Holiday
by BlaiddDrwg30
Summary: The Doctor takes Rose and Rebecca to Mars in the future, but what starts out as a relaxing holiday turns into a frightening escapade when the plastic automatons throughout the city come to life with murderous intentions.
1. Chapter 1

_I hope I never get used to this_, Rebecca thought delightedly as the Tardis lurched forward, causing her and Rose to tighten their grips on the handrail.

The Doctor let out a whoop of excitement as he pulled levers and pushed buttons. "We are in for a treat this time, girls," he said as he concentrated on the moniter in front of him, and leaned over to hit another lever with his foot.

"Where are we going?" Rose asked, her eyes alight with anticipation.

He flashed her a grin. "You'll see soon enough. We're almost there, after all."

She rolled her eyes and whispered to Rebecca, "Does this all the time, he does. Makes himself out to be much more mysterious than he is. Half the time I don't even think he _knows_ where we're heading!"

Rebecca pressed her face against Rose's shoulder and stifled a giggle. She loved this. They hadn't even reached their first destination yet, and she was already having the time of her life.

The Tardis lurched again and then stopped with a jolt.

"I think," the Doctor said while looking around slowly, "we made it!" He straightened up, adjusted his tie, and walked to the front of the Tardis, stopping just at the doors. He turned back to them and gestured gradiosly to the doors. "Ladies, shall we?"

Rebecca and Rose looked at each other for a moment before scrambling to the doors. Once they reached the front, he held up a hand to stop them. He raised a finger to his lips, commanding silence despite the fact that neither of them had said a word. Rebecca could feel her heart pounding frantically against her chest like a bird trying to beat its way out of her ribcage. _I will always remember this,_ she thought wildly, _I will always remember this very first trip with the Doctor. No matter how long I live or what I see and do after this, I will always remember this first adventure._

He pulled open the doors and announced, "Welcome to Mars!"

Rebecca gasped. "It's so beautiful!"

And it was. The first thing she noticed was the sky, which was as bright and red as the skin of a tangerine. A few white wispy clouds floated lazily across the horizon. And sand. Tons and tons of sand. It was just as warm and soft as the sand she was used to, although a bit darker of an orange color. Warm, warm colors, for a warm, warm planet. She was wearing shorts and a tank top, and as soon as she had left the Tardis she noticed the temperature difference. A bead of sweat ran down her spine.

"Who lives here? Is this completely a desert planet?" Rose asked curiously.

The Doctor wrinkled his nose. "No, not in the least! And among other species, people are here! Yeah, you humans finally got down to colonizing Mars in about 3418."

Rose raised her eyebrows. "It took us that long to go head with that? They've been talking about putting a dome on Mars even when I was little!"

"Oh well, this is much more impressive than just a dome," the Doctor replied. "They've actually introduced a biological agent to the air to make it an oxygen based enviroment. And they even built cities and things to resemble the ones on Earth. Bless their dear hearts," he smiled. "Humans love to go all out with things, don't they? Want to build a dome on Mars? Nah, why do that when we can just redo the whole planet! Fantastic, isn't it?"

"So where on Mars are we right now, exactly?" Rebecca asked.

"We're right on the coast! They built a whole community around the Ocean they built here!"

"Wait," Rose said looking around excitedly. "Are you telling me that you landed us on a beach?"

He nodded, hands in his pockets and looking extraordinarily pleased with himself.

"You are bloody brilliant!" she squealed happily and hugged him. He laughed and spun her around.

Rebecca felt like doing the same thing herself. First space and time traveling trip and they went to a futuristic beach on Mars? How awesome was that?! She grinned and peered out at the horizon. "Is that water...purple?"

"Oh yes," the Doctor replied. "Excess amounts of phosphate and nitrate in the water. Combined they produce a salt-like water, similar to what you guys have on Earth. Plus", he grinned, "it's positively smashing to have a purple ocean, don't you think?"

"I...uh...didn't pack a swimsuit." Who in the world would have thought to bring one?

"I didn't either," Rose said. "But check the dresser in your room, I'm sure the Tardis will have something for you." She grabbed Rebecca's hand and pulled her towards the blue box.

Rebecca turned her head and said, "Thanks Doctor."

He winked at her. "Thought you could use a bit of a break."

She nodded gratefully and followed Rose into the Tardis.

The Doctor stood facing the purple Ocean of Mars, lost in thoughts that were all uniquely his own.

She was surprised to find that Rose had been right; as soon as she looked in her dresser there was a brand new bathing suit, just for her. She could hardly believe it. It was a pale yellow bikini, with ruffles and lace, giving it an elegant old-fashioned look to it. When she left her room she ran into Rose in the corrider who was sporting a hot pink bikini with black polka dots. It suited her completely. One of the first things the Doctor had told her when she joined him and Rose was that the Tardis was a thinking, _living_ ship. It got inside your head and knew all kinds of things about you. _Guess that means I'm a 'yellow ruffley' kind of girl_ she thought, looking down at the swimsuit the Tardis had bequeathed to her.

Rose looked positively ecstatic when she bumped into her. "Isn't this just amazing? I think this is the first place the Doctor has taken me that hasn't turned into some kind of dangerous escapade!"

"Ah, well...we've only just arrived, after all," Rebecca replied nervously. "You never know what could happen. I s'ppose it's best to expect the unexpected."

"Of course!" she grinned. "Now you're catching on!"

She grabbed her hand and they ran back outside together.

So far the highlight of the day had been when the Doctor came out of the Tardis wearing bright blue swim trunks peppered with images of banannas. The girls had laughed hysterically at the sight while the Doctor just looked at them bewilderedly.

"What?" he asked, "What's wrong with banannas? Bannanas are good!"

"You look completely daft!" Rose gasped out between peals of laughter.

He responded by flinging a clump of soggy purple Mars seaweed at her hair.

It was the best afternoon she had experianced in a long time. Maybe ever. It took Rebecca a few moments to get used to the fact that she was swimming in a purple ocean. But it _felt_ the same as the oceans she was used to. Smelled the same too. So as soon as she sank into the water up to her shoulders she felt herself completely relax. The Doctor had told them he had landed the Tardis on a rmeote section of the beach, so they had yet to see anyone else. They swam for what felt like forever, lazily gliding on the purple waves and catching glimpes of strange fish swimming all around them.

When Rose said she was getting hungry, they all got out and went back to the Tardis to get changed.

A short time later, they were walking through what seemed to be a huge concrete pavilion, lined with stores and food stands. "They modeled it after the boardwalks that they used to have on Earth," the Doctor was saying as they walked through the pavilion. It attracts a lot of tourism and helps produce extra money to keep the economy going."

"What type of language do they speak here?" Rose asked interestedly. "There seems to be a lot of diversity."

It was true, there were so many different types of aliens walking around that Rebecca wished that her head could spin all the way around so she could look at them all.

"Mostly Oolash, which is the primary dialect on Mars," the Doctor replied. "Although I have heard that Venusian is coming back in style."

"Um...it sounds like a lot of them are speaking English?" Rebecca said, discreetly pointing to a couple of extremly tall beaked aliens who seemed to be arguing over the price of sunglasses."

"Oh right!" The Doctor exclaimed. "Forgot to mention that bit. Once you're a passenger aboard the Tardis she translates everything for you, so you can understand everything."

"Really?" She clapped her hands together happily. "That's so wonderful! So I'll be able to understand what everyone says whereever we go?!"

Rose nodded. "Makes things alot easier when traveling through space."

"That reminds me," the Doctor said, stopping up short. "I have something for you, Becks."

Her heart fluttered at the nickname. She held out her hand and he dropped a small metal object on a chain into it. When she looked closer she saw it was a key, hanging from a silver chain. She looked at him, puzzled.

He smiled. "Its a key to the Tardis. _Your_ key to the Tardis to be precise. Consider it a frequent flyer present."

Rose lifted the chain up from around her own neck. "See? I have one too."

Her throat clogged with emotion as she tried to respond. She was so absolutely overwhelemed with gratitude, excitement, and joy that she found herself unable to speak. Instead she threw her arms around the Doctor and enveloped him in a hug.

"Thank you," she said, her face pressed into the front of his suit. He held her against him tightly for a moment, before kissing the top of her head and releasing her. He grabbed Rebecca's hand and in his other hand took Rose's and kept walking down the promenade without missing a beat.

"Can't have you girls mistakenly getting locked out of the Tardis now can we?"

"Is that a chip shop?" Rose asked. "I could really use some chips. What are Martian chips like, anyway?"

"Oh yeah, here on Mars the chips are just brilliant! Tastes the same, but blue and crispier than you can even imagine!"

As they walked down the promenade, laughing and talking and holding hands, not one of them noticing the plastic heads of the store mannequins following them as they walked...

~_To be continued_


	2. Chapter 2

_******Just wanted to give a big warm thank you to everyone who has been reading/reviewing my fics! It means the world to me that you guys are taking the time to read my stuff and I want you to know I appreciate it so much! Thank you! :)******_

Holiday: Part two

As the trio made their way across the Mars promenade, Rebecca couldn't help but notice how clean everything was. Nowhere on Earth had she ever seen a city that had achieved this level of perfection. The ground was not merely clear of rubbish, but they almost seemed to sparkle with cleanliness. And the Doctor was right; chips on Mars were absolutely fantastic. They sat in what he called a Fistoon, which he told them was the Mars equivalent of a small cafe, eating the blue crispy chips and drinking iced spice tea.

Rebecca couldn't ever remember a time where she had been happier. She could feel the key that the Doctor had given her warm against her chest. She resisted the urge to touch it. Not only was it a key, but to her it felt also like a beacon of hope. Hope that she had the potential to be happy. Happy with Rose and with the Doctor.

"What are those things?" Rose asked, pointing to two humanoids wearing matching green uniforms, sweeping the road.

"Ah!" the Doctor said as he looked out the window to the street, "Those are the Langa, a sort of aide that the Mars government designed to help with various activities, cleaning the streets, emptying the bins, et cetera."

"So they're robots?" Rebecca leaned over her seat to get a better view.

"Weeell, they're technically not made out metal, they're more of a proto-plastic type of material; better for the environment. I'd say they're more like plastic automatons."

Rebecca laughed, "You know pretty much everything, don't you?"

The Doctor leaned back in his chair, his arms folded languidly behind his head. "I wouldn't say _everything,_ but certainly _most_ things."

"Sometimes you sound like such an overblown prat, you know that right?" Rose asked as she flicked a blue chip at his head.

It bounced off the side of his head and fell to the floor, as he stared intently out the window at the sweepers.

"What is it?" Rebecca asked.

"Something...not quite right...about that," he murmured as he continued to stare out the window. Without warning, he burst out of his seat and ran for the door. Rebecca stared after him in disbelief and Rose stood up and gathered their things.

"Lot of running involved when you travel with the Doctor," she said winking at the dark haired girl as ran out the door, following after the Time Lord.

Rebecca sat there, her mouth gaped open in disbelief, until a rush of excitement filled her veins and with a grin she dashed after them both.

When she got outside she saw the Doctor and Rose standing in front of a motionless Langa. She walked up and stood on the other side of him. Out of the corner of her eye she could see him starting intently at the plastic figure in front of him. He pulled his glasses out of the inner pocket of his shirt and after putting them on, leaned even closer to it.

She had never seen him with his glasses on before, and for some reason it sent a warm tingle down her spine. Like a drop of liquid gold falling slowly through her heart.

"This one's stopped moving." The Doctor remarked.

"I wonder why?" Rose remarked as she looked around the street. "The other ones seem to be still working fine."

Now that she was this close to it Rebecca could see that the inert Langa was even creepier than she originally thought. Unlike what she would expect a robot to look like, all metal and gizmos and clicking noises, this looked like a store mannequin. Or even a wax dummy. It seemed almost as if it could be...alive.

"It's creepy," Rose said, echoing her thoughts. "It looks as if it might spring to life any moment."

"That's not the half of it," the Doctor murmured more to himself than to them as he pulled his sonic screwdriver out of his jacket pocket and, with a flourish, began to shine the blue light from the instrument into the Langa's eyes.

Without warning, the Langa sprang into motion. In one swift movement it swung an arm up and captured the Doctor by the throat. He let out a choking gasp as the creature lifted him up off the ground.

With a startled cry, Rose grabbed a hold of the plastic arm and tried to free the Doctor.

"I can't budge it," she yelled. "It's too strong!"

There was a crowd starting to form around the the three of them. "We need help over here!" Rose yelled at the bystanders. Nobody moved, except to gawk at the spectacle they were making.

Meanwhile the Doctor's face was beginning to change to an alarming shade of blue.

Rebecca looked around wildly. Not even thinking, just acting on pure instinct, she pushed her way through the crowd and ran back to the place where they had been eating only minutes before. She grabbed one of the unoccupied chairs from a table out front and ran back, pushing her way back through the crowd.

The Doctor was still struggling feebly, and Rose had grabbed the sonic screwdriver and was pointing it at the Langa but to no avail.

"It's not working!" she called out frantically as Rebecca approached them.

"Rose, get out of there!" Rebecca yelled. And as Rose jumped backwards out of the way she brought the chair crashing down on top of the Langa's head. The wooden chair splintered to pieces upon contact, and while not causing any damage to the plastic automaton, it did make it pause long enough to release the Doctor and turn towards her.

_Maybe that wasn't the best idea? _she thought uneasily as the creature started towards her. The Doctor had fallen like a sack of bricks, but was quickly recovering. He leaned on Rose as he started to get up. But even if he got up quickly, there was no way he would make it to her in time. The Langa was moving towards her slowly, but with deadly precision. Out of options, Rebecca decided if she was going down, she was going to go down fighting. Maybe if she kept hitting it she would find a weak spot?

Suddenly with a jolt the Langa shuddered and halted where it stood, its head drooping to its chest. Rebecca looked around surprised.

"Sorry! So sorry!" A large purple humanoid alien with multiple chins came running up to the scene with a large remote control. By the time he had waddled up to Rebecca he was panting and nearly out of breath. "Are you all right? It didn't hurt you, did it?"

"Ah," she stammered, "I'm fine, but you should really be asking that to my friend, who was nearly strangled."

The alien's eyes looked as if they might bulge out of his head. He started stammering apologies so hurried and so profusely that he couldn't even form a coherent statement.

By this time the Doctor had walked over and was in the process of straightening his tie. "I'm alright," he said, smiling benevolently at the apologizing purple creature. "No harm, no foul. And you are...?"

Seeing that he wasn't about to be sued or at the very least yelled at, he relaxed somewhat. "I'm Mr. Stoops, head designer for Mars Metropolitan Business Associates."

"Ah!" The Doctor pointed at him knowingly. So you're the one who designed the Langa, am I right? Brilliant mind, you have. Just brilliant!"

Mr. Stoops beamed. "Well, wouldn't want to inflate my own ego," he said.

Rose and Rebecca looked at each other and stifled giggles. As if he needed inflating of any kind.

"But yes, they are my personal pet project! Cleanest planet in the solar system, that's what we're aiming for! With the Langa cleaning up after everyone and doing all sorts of other menial tasks, our planet rankings are just rising exponentially!"

"Still," The Doctor said as he rubbed the back of his head. "Seems sort of odd for one of these to just go bonkers like that though, doesn't it?'

Mr. Stoops flushed a dark purple. "Just a control glitch. Something wrong with the system, third one today to act wonky." He smacked the remote control against his hand. "But! Nothing to worry about! Once we get the bugs all worked out, everything should be fine. Now, if you will excuse me, many things to attend to, you know." He bowed slightly to the three of them and then waddled away.

The Doctor watched him leave, an unusually somber expression on his face.

"What is it?" Rose asked. "You think something might be up?"

He shrugged. "Normally no, I would say it was just our luck to wander into a situation that got a bit hairy...but in this case..."

"You thought there was something wrong from the moment the Langa went still, when we were still in the restaurant. What do you think is going on?"

He looked at them both. "When it froze like that it reminded me of something...and then when my sonic screwdriver didn't work on it it seemed to confirm it."

Rebecca asked, "Confirmed what, exactly?"

He folded his arms across his chest. "Confirmed that there is something else animating those machines that hasn't anything to do with a remote control." He raised an eyebrow. "Something that can control plastic?"

Rose groaned and covered her face with her hands. "Oh god, you mean that Nestene thingy again, don't you?"

"The Nestene...what?" Rebecca asked bewilderedly.

The Doctor gazed at her. "The Nestene consciousness. It's a sentient life form that takes control and feeds off of things made of plastic. Rose has seen it before...and so have I."

"Doctor," Rose asked, "Do you have any more of that anti-plastic stuff from last time?"

He grinned. "Nope!"

She rolled her eyes.

"So what are we going to do?" Rebecca asked.

The Doctor threw an arm around each girls shoulder. "Now we are going to take a peek at Mars Metropolitan Business Associates headquarters and see if we can find anything strange." He shrugged. "It's a place to start!"

_~To be continued_


	3. Chapter 3

Rebecca had assumed that the Doctor would want to wait until nightfall to sneak into the Langa warehouse, but he surprised her by saying that they would head right over.

"Believe me," he said, "If there's something going on with the Nestene we want this nipped in the bud pretty quickly."

He was uncharacteristically somber, seemingly more withdrawn than he ever had been in the short time she had known him. It concerned her. She pulled Rose aside as they walked and asked her if she thought he was okay.

Rose glanced quickly at the Doctor before turning back to her. "Yeah, he's fine," she said.

"I've never seen him so...serious," Rebecca said.

The blond girl grimaced. "He gets like that, you know, right before we do something potentially dangerous. I guess it's his way of preparing himself. Preparing us."

Rebecca figured it was something like that.

And while it unnerved her to see him so serious, in a strange way deep down it also delighted her. As much as she liked seeing the carefree and jubilant Doctor, she knew he was a complex individual and found herself longing to see the deeper aspects of him that ran below the surface. She wanted to know _him_. All of him. It enchanted her while simultaneously terrifying her.

After stopping at some tourists stands down on the promenade and getting a general idea where Mr. Stoops and his establishment of Langa, the three of them headed back to the Tardis. Rose asked him why they didn't just walk there, it wasn't too far away, after all, but the Doctor wanted to have the Tardis close by, just in case things got out of hand. He wanted to make sure that if they had to make a run for it, they would be able to get out of there quickly.

These types of thoughts didn't seem to bode well for Rebecca's nerves.

Not that she wasn't excited out of her mind about confronting the Nadine or Nespleen or whatever in the hell it was called. She was ready. She found the thought of being confronted with danger again to be completely exhilirating. It was herself that she found to be lacking. She was walking into a situation with the Doctor. The freaking Doctor! Nine hundred plus years as a Time Lord, with endless experience to fall back on. And who was she? Just a puny human girl that he picked up along the way. At least Rose had been traveling with him awhile, was used to this sort of thing by now. And she seemed perfectly comfortable with her ability to handle whatever situations came their way. But who was she, Rebecca, really? What benefits could having her around really provide? She figured she had proven her worth with the Slitheen incident, and yet she worried that it had been a fluke. A one time occurrence. What if, when the time came, she froze? Or made the wrong choice and somebody ended up hurt because of it? How could she live with herself after that? Her stomach tightened painfully as the various things that could go wrong played out in her head.

"Are _you_ okay?" Rose asked, breaking her out of her morbid thoughts. "You seem a bit...pale."

Rebecca smiled reassuringly at her. "I'm fine." She slung an arm around Rose's shoulder and they laughed and talked their way back to the Tardis.

But the troubled thoughts remained.

Mr. Stoops looked thoroughly bewildered. "But...this isn't about what happened earlier?"

The purple alien had turned almost dark blue with anxiety when he saw the Doctor and his entourage arrive at his headquarters. But they hurridly assured him that they were not in fact there to press charges against him or his company. The Doctor proceeded to show him the psychic paper and announced that he was, in fact, an undercover inspector of plastic automatons for the Shadow Proclamation.

"But why," Mr. Stoops asked, "would the Shadow Proclamation be interested in my Langa? And why didn't you just say who you were in the first place?"

The Doctor waved his hand, as if to fend off his questions. "Oh you know how those judicial types are, always wanting to check on things that are none of their business." He stuck the psychic paper back in the inside pocket of his jacket, before the inquisitive extraterrestrial asked any more questions. "Didn't want to give it away, before. Supposed to be all undercover you know."

Mr. Stoops nodded seriously, as if this made complete sense. "I see, I see," he said. "Well, can I give you a tour of the facility? Then you can have more of a clearer idea of what we do here at Mars Metropolitan Business Associates."

The Doctor clapped him on the back. "Good sport. I like that. Let's see what you've got in here, hmmm?"

About an hour later Rebecca thought she was going to die of boredom. They had walked through almost the whole facility and so far nothing out of the ordinary had turned up. Mr. Stoops was in his glory. He gesticulated in an animated manner as he showed them proto-types and models and schematics and about dozens of other equally tedious things. She had to give the Doctor credit. He looked just as alert and interested as when they started. Or maybe he really _was_ interested in all this stuff.

She slowed down a few paces and let Rose catch up to her. "Are you just as bored as I am?" she whispered to the blonde girl.

Rose grinned, her tongue touching her lip in a mischievous smile, which always caused Rebecca's pulse to quicken inexplicably. "You read my mind, as usual!"

Something flashed on her left and she saw it out of the corner of her eye, drawing her attention. She paused and looked over. There was a door with a window, which was dark inside as if all the lights were off. _That's funny_, she thought. _I could have sworn that I saw..._

Another green flash lit up the room, casting a eerie glow against the glass window which lasted only for a second. She quickly glanced ahead and saw the Doctor still following Mr. Stoops a little ways ahead of her. She briefly wondered if she should get his attention. She felt a sliver of indecision slide through her. What if she got his attention and it was nothing? Just a trick of the light? Then not only would she be wrong but it might even make the Doctor not trust her judgment any longer. Anxiety clutched at her stomach. _Maybe I should just check it out myself first, and then if it looks like something worth noting I'll catch up to the Doctor._ Ignoring her gut instinct to immediately inform the Doctor about what she was doing, she walked over to the dark room, cupped her hands around her eyes and peered inside. It was still pitch black, and hard to tell what was in there. Her heart beat furiously as she realized she was going to have to go in there.

"Did you find something?"

She almost jumped out of her skin, and turned around quickly to see Rose smiling at her. "A wee bit jumpy, are we?"

"Yeah, you scared the bejeezus out of me!"

Rose stood next to her and peered in. "So what's up?"

Rebecca shrugged. "Thought I saw something, not too sure. Wanted to check it out real quick, make sure it was nothing major."

She tested the door handle and finding it unlocked, walked into the room, followed closely by Rose. She ran her hand across the wall on the inside of the door and when finding a light switch, flipped it on.

It was an old storage room, and hadn't been used for a long time by the state of the dust accumulation. It was bigger than it looked from the outside. _Sort of like the Tardis_, she thought wryly. There were boxes and crates piled up all over the place, also, in the most haphazard manner she had ever seen.

"What the hell is THAT?" Rose asked, disgustedly.

Rebecca's eyes were drawn to the far corner of the room, where a huge metal tank was sitting on an elaborate stand. A clear fluid ran down the sides of the tank, forming a small puddle around the edges of the stand. A faint humming noise seemed to be pulsing from it.

Rose's grip on her arm tightened as they both slowly moved towards the corner. As much as she didn't want to see what was in it, she was drawn to it. Curiosity seemed to pull them forward like a magnet.

When they were a few paces away from it, the tank lit up with a greenish glow, stopping the girls in their tracks. "That light was what I saw when we were in the hallway," she whispered to Rose.

To their horror a long thin tentacle rose from the center of a tank and hung lazily over the side. It glistened with fluid. A strong smell of burnt plastic hung in the air.

"Is that it?" she asked Rose. "Is that the Nestene consciousness?"

Rose shook her head slowly. "I'm not sure, to be honest. The last time I saw it it was sort of this huge globby muck thing. Not anything with tentacles." She looked at Rebecca. "But who knows if it just took some other form?"

Rebecca nodded. "Alright. I think it's time we got the Doctor. You go run out and get him."

Rose put her other hand on her shoulder. "What are you going to do?"

"Try to communicate with it, or something. Maybe see if I can reason with it?"

"Are you sure?"

Rebecca nodded. "Yes. I'll be fine. Just go get the Doctor."

Rose squeezed her shoulder, whispered "Be careful", and then went back the way they came in search of the Doctor.

As soon as she heard the door close behind her she turned all her attention back to the creature in the tank. "Hello?" she asked tentatively. "Can you hear me?"

**We...hear...you...**

She could hear it! In her head she could hear a metal, grinding sort of voice respond. A small tremor rushed through her. It c_ould_ talk! She was communicating with it! "Are you the Nestene?"

**We are the Nestene**

"What are you doing here on Mars? Did you take over that plastic automaton before?"

There was a pause before it answered. **Resources depleted. Need new food source**.

"Um..." she tried to figure out how to tactfully respond to that. She knew from what the Doctor had told them that the Nestene drained the resources of its own home world and was constantly seeking new planets to replenish itself. But from what he had said it seemed that the consequences of that were never good for the planet that was being taken over. "I know that you usually take over planets that have a huge supply of plastic. Is that why you came to Mars? Because of all the new plastic factories and the Langa?"

**Correct**.

She looked around the dusty and dingy room. "Well, how did you get set up in here without anyone knowing about it?"

**The minds of a few weak factory workers were easy to subdue. They built us this tank. Here, in this factory, there is much plastic to control. Here we will grow until we are strong enough to control all the plastics on this entire planet.**

"But that will cause lots of damage to this planet, to Mars. You'll be destroying a while ecosystem and the people will suffer!"

**All that matters is our one mind. The Nestene is all, and all will be the Nestene**.

She was starting to become uneasy. This conversation was starting to get a bit...out of control. Suddenly realized how close she was to the tank, she took a step back.

The green light flashed again. **You have a stronger mind than the ones we have taken over. You will be our ambassador**

"Um...I'm sorry?"

**Our mind will join with yours. You will convert yourself to the glory of the Nestene. One mind. One mind. One mind**.

Things were not going as well as she had planned. Heart hammering in her chest, she turned to leave.

As quick as lightning, the tentacle shot out and wrapped itself around her wrist. "Gasping with shock, she immediately tried to pull back, but found it had tightened it's grip to the point where it felt like a vise. It was slimy and hot, and the smell of burning plastic was almost more than she could bear. Shivering with disgust, with her other hand she tried to pry the tentacle away, but it was so slippery she found she could not get a good grip on it.

**One mind. One mind. One mind**.

It started to pull her towards the tank. Her wrist throbbed where the Nestene had a hold of her. She dug her heels in and looked around frantically for something to grab hold of. There was nothing. Despite it being confined to a tank, the creature was strong. As it pulled her closer and closer to the tank she could see the thick fluid bubbling at the surface, and a green blob like creature at the bottom of the tank. She fought and struggled tooth and nail but it didn't seem to have any effect. She was dimly aware of the sound of the door banging open behind her and her name being called, but the blood was pounding so hard in her head that every single other noise seemed to be dim. She couldn't tear her eyes away from the creature at the bottom of the tank. The creature that was probably going to drown her in hot plastic. As if sensing her thoughts the Nestene opened one big eye and looked right into her eyes.

Which was the last thing she remembered before passing out.

She awoke slowly, as if coming out of a haze. She was laying down on the floor with the Doctor and Rose standing above her. The room didn't smell like burnt plastic anymore, and the tank that stood in the corner seemed to be devoid of any creature, Nestene or otherwise. There were huge green chunks of...something on the wall and floating in puddles of water on the floor. She looked away from it, not wanting to think about what it was.

"Becks! Are you alright?" Rose asked, a worried look on her face.

Rebecca touched the spot on her wrist where the Nestene had grabbed her. It was red and a bit tender, but it didn't seem as if there any lasting damage. She nodded. "I'm fine." She looked around quickly. "Is it gone? Is the Nestene gone?"

The Doctor nodded sadly. "It's gone. I tried to reason with it, every time I encounter it I try to reason with it. But in the end, the only thing it understands is force."

She gulped. She knew without him actually saying it that the Doctor had killed it. "But...How did you destroy it?"

He held up a small vial. "Phthalates. Most heavily concentrated chemical found in plastic. And since I didn't have any of the liquefying agent left from the last time I ran into old goopy-guts here, I had to use the next best thing." He grinned. "Bacteria. Certain bacteria breaks down the phthalates and converts it to a less toxic form", he gestured to the wet floor. "Like water! I grabbed a bit of the bacteria when we went back to the Tardis before. Lucky, really, that the Bhatacaryans value bacteria as highly as gold, and had given me some on my last visit to Barsime."

She looked at the Doctor, wide eyed. "Doctor, I swear sometimes I don't understand a word of what you say."

Rose chuckled. "Join the club."

"One thing I still don't understand though," the Doctor mused aloud. "Why didn't you get my attention when you first saw that light? It was lucky, really, that you happened to catch a glance of it. If you hadn't seen that, then chances are we might have left the facility and who knows how much damage could have been done?"

"I wanted to check it out first and make sure I hadn't imagined it. "Didn't want to waste your time if it was something not worth mentioning."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "You didn't trust your own judgment? Why? Rose and I trust you and your judgment."

Rose nodded and said, "Of course we do."

She shrugged self consciously. "I was afraid of bringing attention to a situation that didn't warrant it, I guess. I figured if I could handle it by myself..."

Rose snorted. "You don't HAVE to handle things on your own, that's what we're here for!"

"This wasn't a test, you know," the Doctor said with a chuckle. "What did you think, that if you did something wrong we were going to chuck right you out of the Tardis?"

"You don't have to prove anything to us!" Rose exclaimed. "We already like you, and want you with us, why else do you think we asked you along with us in the first place?"

"I was just afraid I was going to mess up," she said, her hands out in front of her. "I don't think I could handle it if something happened to you guys. Especially if it was because of something I did."

Rose reached out and put her hand on her arm. The warmth from her fingers seemed to seep right through Rebecca's heart and she felt her face flush. _Don't start, you silly thing_, she thought furiously to herself. _She's not flirting with you, nimrod, she's just being nice. Just being Rose_.

"We know what we signed up for when we started going on adventures together, right?" she asked.

He grabbed her hand and intertwined his fingers with hers. "Look Becks," he said softly yet firmly, "I wouldn't have asked you to come with us if I didn't think you could handle it. I can tell when I meet someone that's meant to be my companion. And you and Rose, well. You're it."

He squeezed her hand and grinned at her, causing her heart to skip. _Not again! Just stop_! she mentally screamed to herself. _Neither of them are flirting they are just being nice!_ She willed her heartbeat to slow back down to a normal pace.

"Well isn't this a sweet moment?" Rose said, smiling.

The Doctor used his free hand to take one of Rose's in his, so he was holding hands with them both.

"Honestly," he said as he looked between the two of them, "I can't imagine anyone I would rather be doing this with."

Rose grinned.

Rebecca felt something warm and soft fill with happiness as she looked at them both. _I'm home_, she thought, almost confused by the amount of contentment that idea brought her. It was dizzying and intoxicating, this feeling of belonging here, with these people. _I'm finally home._

"So," the Doctor said, "Where to next?"

~*~The End

**_"And someone may overpower one alone, but two together can take a stand against an enemy. And a threefold cord cannot be so quickly taken apart..." -Kristen Britain_**


End file.
